Effortless

Twenty-nine

"And stupidly, I was like, 'March 40th doesn't sound real either'. Yeah, of course it doesn't sound real; it doesn't exist!" I ranted.

I had been giving Ricky the rundown of everything that happened at the mall. He had insisted on having me tell him what we did as if something huge had happened. Nothing huge happened and I made that clear to him. Yet, he still wanted the step-by-step of the day. It was entertaining to him.

"Did he laugh?" Ricky inquired.

"Yeah, he always laughs." I huffed as I plopped down on the chair next to my friend. "He said I was his friend."

Ricky's eyes widened. "Actually?"

"Yep. I thought I was hearing things but that was what he said."

Ricky analyzed me. "Okay, are we happy about that?"

Of course I was happy about it. I found myself constantly thinking about and wanting to be around the guy I had convinced myself that I hated. His presence made me feel joy instead of hate. I never thought that he and I would ever get to such a point, but we had and I wasn't upset about it. I was now able to see why everyone else liked him so much.

However, I felt conflicted. It was easy for me to focus on proving that I was smarter than someone that I hated because the dislike for them drove me to work harder. It's hard to be unapologetically better than someone that you actually like. What if this caused me to lose focus on everything that I had worked so hard for? I wanted the new friendship that we had, but I still wanted to win. That never changed. So, I'd just have to balance it.

"Yes." My voice was barely above a whisper. It was as if speaking too loudly would have gotten me in trouble. "I actually really like him."

"I like him too and I haven't spent nearly as much time with him as you have." He said. "You two went through all of these years of unnecessary hate when you could have been friends a long time ago. It didn't even take you that long to stop hating him."

I scoffed. "It's that stupid charm of his that wins everyone over."

The charm that made everyone else like Javier made me like him too. It was another one of his great qualities that made people believe that he was perfect. He did it with ease, and that was what had driven me to convince myself that I hated him in the beginning. It made me angry how easily he got people to adore him, just like it made me angry how easily he did well in school. I wouldn't lie and say that those things did not still annoy me, but the fondness of Javi outweighed the annoyance of him being effortlessly good at everything.

"You should invite him to hang out with us, and his friend too. If he's friends with you then he should be friends with me too. Gotta make sure he's the right fit." Ricky said as he punched me in the shoulder playfully.

Giggling, I told him, "Oh, I didn't know that new friends had to get approval from you."

"Eli, of course they need my approval. I'm your best friend; the original."

"You're right, what am I thinking?" I said dramatically.

Ricky nodded before sighing. "Kailey will be happy about this too. She's wanted you to be friends for a while now."

His demeanor shifted when he brought up his girlfriend. They still hadn't worked things out and I still had no clue why. He had never told me what exactly had happened between them. I didn't want to press him on it, but since he brought Kailey up I figured that I might as well ask.

"About Kailey..." I drawled. "Are you going to tell me what happened?"

Ricky's shoulder slumped as he sighed. "It was nothing, really."